Monday, June 8, 2009
Mexico: Shootout Kills 16 in Mexico’s Acapulco Resort
Saturday, June 6, 2009
Legal News: Five U.S. Contractors Held in Slaying of James Kitterman
Wow, this story is getting deeper. I do not have the inside track on this thing and if any readers have anything pertinent to add, post it in the comments section. Or you can email me in private through the contact form.-Matt
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Five U.S. contractors held in slaying of another in Iraq
June 6, 2009
* Story Highlights
* NEW: Weapons confiscated in raid of suspects’ firm, official says
* Five arrested in death of fellow contractor James Kitterman
* Kitterman found bound, blindfolded and fatally stabbed
* Victim owned a construction company that operated in Iraq
BAGHDAD, Iraq (CNN) — Five American security contractors were detained in connection with the killing of another American contractor last month inside Baghdad’s Green Zone, sources with knowledge of the investigation told CNN Saturday.
Iraqi and U.S. personnel took the five into custody in an operation inside the Green Zone before dawn on Friday, according to an Iraqi official involved in the investigation into the killing of James Kitterman. The five, who have not yet been charged, were being held by Iraqi security forces Saturday at a jail inside the heavily protected zone, he said.
The troops also confiscated weapons during the raid on the suspects’ firm at about 4 a.m. (11 a.m. ET), said the official, who spoke on condition of anonymity.
Friday, June 5, 2009
Building Snowmobiles: The Attack By Fire and the Super-empowered Individual
“It’s a schemer who put you where you are. You were a schemer. You had plans. Look where it got you. I just did what I do best-I took your plan and turned it on itself. Look what I have done to this city with a few drums of gas and a couple bullets. Nobody panics when the expected people get killed. Nobody panics when things go according to plan, even if the plans are horrifying. If I tell the press that tomorrow a gangbanger will get shot, or a truckload of soldiers will get blown up, nobody panics. But when I say one little old mayor will die, everyone loses their minds! Introduce a little anarchy, you upset the established order, and everything becomes chaos. I am an agent of chaos. And you know the thing about chaos, Harvey? It’s fair. “-The Joker, from the movie Dark Knight
This is a building snowmobiles post for the simple reason that no one else is covering this arsonist story or fire in this way (minus maybe War Nerd), or really getting into the concepts of the ‘attack by fire’. Oyler, the arsonist, is the ultimate definition of the super-empowered individual, and truly symbolizes a modern day Joker. Fortunately, he will be meeting the same fate as that character.
Now of course I will not give a DIY class about using the attack by fire, but I do want to give a hint to the reader that this is stuff we need to be thinking about. Lets just say it should be in your toolbox of ideas, so you know how to defend against it. But according to the Geneva Convention, fire as an offensive weapon has been ruled out, hence why flame throwers are not used anymore. (I posted the protocol below) But if you read through it, it lists everything a terrorist or an insurgent wouldn’t mind doing to achieve a goal. So learning how to defend against it, is key.
But back to the attack by fire and the super-empowered individual. What Oyler did, is exactly what arsonists do, and that is get off on lighting fires. He had been perfecting his technique all summer in 2006, and the Esperanza Fire was his so called ‘masterpiece of chaos’. So what can we learn from this tragic event? I will attempt to answer that question, both from a smokejumper/forest fire fighter position, and from a security professional position, and also delve into the attack by fire from a warfighter and strategist point of view.
As a smokejumper, I fought many forest fires throughout the west. We would fight the small fires, and we would fight the big fires, it didn’t matter. We would fight naturally started fires(lightening started) and we would fight man made fires (trash fires, thrown cigarettes, etc.). But the most disheartening and frightening fires, are the ones set by arsonists. Especially arsonists that know what they are doing.
Saturday, May 2, 2009
Bounties: Mexico Nabs Zeta Gang Leader On Most-Wanted List
Right on, and good on the guy(s) that helped nab this clown. –Matt
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Mexico nabs Zeta gang leader on most-wanted list
By ISTRA PACHECO
MEXICO CITY (AP) — Mexican police on Wednesday arrested suspected Zeta gang leader Gregorio Sauceda Gamboa, one of Mexico’s 24 most-wanted drug traffickers.
Sauceda Gamboa appears on a list of 24 alleged drug traffickers published by prosecutors in March. Authorities have offered rewards of up to $2.1 million for each suspect. Together with a list of 13 lower-ranking drug suspects, the group covers Mexico’s most powerful cartel operators.
With Sauceda Gamboa’s arrest Wednesday at a home in the border city of Matamoros, across the border from Brownsville, Texas, authorities have arrested five of the 37 whose names appeared on the lists.
Wednesday, April 29, 2009
Crime: Drug-Sub Culture
“You ever try to build something in your backyard? They’re building these in the jungles.”
This is a building snowmobiles concept, and very innovative. I give them high marks for working the problem and coming up with something like this, but it is still criminal.
Perhaps the counter to something like this could be the good ol’ Letter of Marque? I have talked about it before for land operations, and this problem is a prime opportunity to use the LoM for a sea based operation. We would have to break out all the old U-Boat hunting ‘lessons learned’ from WW2 for this one. I also think this would be an excellent task for a private naval company, and this stuff along with the piracy deal, could keep companies very busy. –Matt
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Drug-Sub Culture
By DAVID KUSHNER
April 26, 2009
THE CRAFT FIRST surfaced like something out of a science-fiction movie. It was November 2006, and a Coast Guard cutter spotted a strange blur on the ocean 100 miles off Costa Rica. As the cutter approached, what appeared to be three snorkels poking up out of the water became visible. Then something even more surprising was discovered attached to the air pipes: a homemade submarine carrying four men, an AK-47 and three tons of cocaine.
Today, the 49-foot-long vessel bakes on concrete blocks outside the office of Rear Adm. Joseph Nimmich in Key West, Fla. Here, at the Joint Interagency Task Force South, Nimmich commands drug-interdiction efforts in the waters south of the United States. Steely-eyed, gray-haired and dressed in a blue jumpsuit, he showed me the homemade sub one hot February afternoon like a hunter flaunting his catch. “We had rumors and indicators of this for a very long period beforehand,” he told me, which is why they nicknamed it Bigfoot.